


One Kiss

by ConsultingTimeLord



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 15:50:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConsultingTimeLord/pseuds/ConsultingTimeLord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Horatio questions Hamlet on what troubles him after informing him of what might just be King Hamlet's ghost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt at Shakespeare fanfiction so I apologize if it isn't that great, but I set to writing it so I finished it. I hope you like it.

After delivering the news to Hamlet of his deceased father roaming about at night, Bernardo and Marcellus departed, leaving Horatio and Hamlet alone. Horatio could see the light pink around Hamlet’s eyes, the gleam of tears on the cusp of pouring over the edge. Hamlet, dressed in black, continued to mourn his father when no one else had. Hamlet, who mourned his mother’s remarriage when she married his father’s brother so soon after his death. In that moment, as the Prince of Denmark paced back and forth, he appeared as though he would soon mourn his sanity as well.

Horatio wanted to grab him by the shoulders and stop his pacing. He wanted to look him in the eye and try to soothe his pain with kind words. He wanted to tell him how he felt, but he did none of those things. Instead, he stood aside and watched helplessly as Hamlet wallowed in sadness and pain.

“Milord?” Horatio said, speaking up as Hamlet was in mid-pace. 

“Hm? Still here, Horatio?” he responding, stopping everything at the sound of Horatio’s voice.

Horatio hesitated as Hamlet turned to him with his wide, blue eyes, appearing as if no care in the world weighed on his shoulders even though he carried a thousand tons. “Indeed, milord. I hope I am not speaking out of turn when I say I am concerned for your health, in body, mind, and soul.”

At the words, a small window into the true heaviness the poor prince bore shined through. “Not at all, my dear friend. Concern is a most welcome change.”

Hamlet pulled his friend into a hug, and Horatio met him eagerly, wanting to hold him longer than time allowed. To his dismay, Hamlet let go and stepped back, but he held Horatio by the shoulders and looked at him with such affection that Horatio’s heart swelled. 

“What troubles you so?” Horatio asked, remembering why he didn’t leave with the others.

“Ah, many a thing, sweet Horatio,” he replied, clapping his friend on the shoulder before turning away. He didn’t want Horatio to see his true pain, but what he didn’t realize was that he was already aware. “But I am most plagued by my father’s death, even now. Even when he has arisen to haunt the darkest of hours.”

“I know how much pain you must harbor.”

“Not just the emptiness of loss, Horatio, but the shame and anger born from the torment my mother and uncle lay upon me. They brand me as both childish and unmanly, saying my pain should have come and gone with the wind, that I should not dwell on my father, the king. The only father I knew and will ever know.” Hamlet spun around to face Horatio with pleading eyes. “Has my mourning spent its welcome, sweet Horatio? Have I shed one tear too many?”

Horatio shook his head. “No, not at all, milord. On my honor, for however long you mourn, that is the appropriate length for mourning. Your mother and uncle… well, I shan’t speak ill of the King and Queen, but there is no fault in you.”

“You speak words woven of warmth and kindness, my friend. They ease the edges of my frayed heart. You are more dear to me than any other, Horatio,” Hamlet said, a rare smile on his face.

Horatio’s heart leapt in his chest high enough to cause a wave of nausea. It swept over him, taking with it all of his sensibility as Hamlet stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Horatio’s neck. He could feel his heartbeat stutter, feeling the way Hamlet’s head rested again his own, cheeks brushing.

“You are just as dear to me,” Horatio said in all honesty as he wrapped his arms around Hamlet’s waist.

Hamlet pulled back just enough to look Horatio in the eye and moved his hands so they were cupping his face. Their lips were mere inches from touching, Horatio noted, his heart beating as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. He wanted to kiss him, he want to pull him close and keep him in his arms forever, safe and happy, but he didn’t know if that was what the prince would want. Not until Hamlet looked into his eyes and spoke with hitched breath.

“Am I truly?”

Horatio nodded. “Prince Hamlet, you are dearer to me than my own life.”

Like water to the shore, they crashed together in the heat of passion, unable to keep their hands off of each other. Ever since he’d gotten to know the Prince of Denmark, he had wanted nothing more and reality was better than anything his imagination could have constructed. He felt weak and elated as if Hamlet both kept him grounded and stopped him from falling. 

He wanted to keep kissing him until Death came to claim them both, but a voice in the distance cut their time short. Hamlet broke their connection and Horatio could almost feel himself start to fall despite being on solid ground. He looked behind him toward one of the entrances and back to Horatio with an apologetic expression.

“My mother searches for me,” he said, still in Horatio’s arms, reluctant to leave.

Horatio smiled sadly, but he understood. Their love was not one that could truly ever be, not in public, anyway. As a future king he was expected to wed and produce heirs, but that didn’t stop him from wishing things would turn out otherwise. “Go meet her, sweet Prince.”

Hamlet smiled, stealing one last kiss before breaking free of Horatio’s grasp. “We will meet again this night in search of my father’s ghost?”

Horatio nodded once, a half-hearted smile on his lips, as Hamlet left the room. He was left alone in the massive room with a sigh in his lungs and an ache in his heart, but, if nothing else, he would always have that one kiss.


End file.
